Turkey Talk for 2014

[Sydney Acres]

Quote:
Please post their answer if you do contact them. I'm always willing to adjust my management practices when I find new information, assuming it has been well researched and it makes sense.

 

[Sydney Acres]

My turkeys are officially mating

I saw it with my own two eyes

lol

This is their second season and the toms seem like naturals, pros. Last year they were like clumsy teenagers lol.

I should be seeing fertile eggs soon.

Mine too!! Well, one of my five hens is mating. Poor girl, at 8 months old this was the first mating for both her and the tom (Francis), and he had a steep learning curve. First he kept approaching her from behind (better than standing on her head) but he repeatedly stepped on her tail, which she didn't like. Then the second (submissive) tom (DeLorean) decided he could do better, and mounted from the side. Francis didn't appreciate the interference, grabbed DeLorean by the snood, pulled his head down to the ground while simultaneously trying to mount the hen with DeLorean still on top of her. Well, together the two toms weigh more than 45 lbs and I was worried the poor hen would be crushed, so I decided to lift DeLorean off of her, with his snood still in the death grip of Francis, which pulled Francis off her also. So for a few minutes the hen remained squatted down, with Francis still attached to DeLorean beside her, pushing DeLorean's head into the grass with all his strength. Everyone was still for a while, then I became worried that DeLorean's snood would be bitten off, so I gently pried Francis' beak off it and got DeLorean into another yard,

After many attempts to approach from behind and her jumping up when he stepped on her tail, Francis finally approached from the side, but was so tentative (and big at over 26 lbs) that he ended up pulling out lots of her feathers before he figured out how to drop his wings to the ground to keep from sliding around on her back. By the time they were done Francis had clumps of her feathers all tangled up in his toes, and the ground was covered with saddle feathers. Although coverage is a bit thin, she didn't have any exposed skin once she shook everything back into place. If I hadn't seen what had happened I would have found all the feathers on the ground and thought there had been a predator attack. Clearly the hens will need saddles for this tom, at least for the first year.

 

[BullChick]

Quote:
Oh my!

 

[BullChick]

Okay, I am assuming the post was from 2013, but I am hopeful that someone remembers the conversation.
You guys were talking about roasters for the huge turkeys, and someone said they poured "something" in the roaster. It could have been apple juice for all I know! It wasn't beer. I remember that.
Anyone remember posting about using an "odd" recipe?

 

[chicken pickin]

That may have been me. I posted a simple apple brine. But I also remember someone posted after me a different brine with more ingredients.


Edited to add the recipes I found on the turkeys for 2013 thread

this was my very basic recipe -
I don't remember the exact amounts. I want to say in a huge pan filled it 2/3 water 1/3 juice roughly 1cup of salt leaving enough room to submerge the turkey of course. Then before cooking I quartered up 5 apples and tossed them with a few hunks of butter and sprinkled with spices, I don't remember what I used most likely it was Rosemary its my fav spice. The apple mixture was then stuffed in the turkey.


This was TexasLisa's recipe-
How can I say no to the avatar that makes me laugh every time I see it!!! APPLE BRINE 2 qts. water 2 qts CHEAP apple juice 1 c table salt OR 1 1/2 c kosher salt 1/2 c brown sugar 10 whole cloves 1 T black peppercorns zest of orange In large pot combine salt, sugar, and 1 qt. water. Bring to light boil, stirring until salt and sugar are dissolved. Remove from heat, add cloves, peppercorn and zest. Allow to cool. Add remaining water and apple juice. Refrigerate until completely chilled. Place poultry in container. Pour brine inside cavity first then on top. Cover completely. (If there isn't enough brine, add more apple juice) Brine 1 hour per pound in refrigerator. (This last time I doubled the recipe because of the size of the bird). While brining, swish the bird around in the brine. Thoroughly rinse all brine off before cooking or it will be salty. When baking, I add onion, apple, and garlic to the cavity.


This was Celie's recipe-
Being from the South, I brine with 1 can cheap frozen apple juice, thawed, 1quart water, with 1/2 cup dark brown sugar and 1 cup kosher salt, dissolved and cooled, 1/2 T red pepper or cayenne, 1 T savory, 1T rubbed sage, 1t marjoram, 1t rosemary, 2 large onions pealed and quartered, a whole head of garlic cut in half through the center, to expose the insides, and after putting in your turkey, cover with water just over the top of turkey, put a lid on and refrigerate for 1 day, I usually use a chest filled with ice, because the brining bucket is too big for the frig. Open the bucket every few hours and swish the turkey up and down, to make sure the seasoning stays mixed up. Be sure after all brining, to rinse thoroughly, or your turkey will be too salty! Sometimes without brining, I just stuff the bird with a large onion or 2 quartered, a few carrots and a head of pealed garlic cloves, but I am from the South, where we usually use a lot of onion and garlic!

 

[TeaChick]

It was a long day. We didn't get home and in bed until 2am and then left at 6:30am. The trip down was horrible thanks to bad drivers and worse roads. It took us 2 1/2hrs to get there since we went the more time consuming way. Of course, we had to make a couple stops (potty, food and Agway for treats), so the round trip took 6hrs. We got home, cleaned the turkey shed as well as we could (it wasn't bad, just some of the snow blowing in froze shavings and hay to the floor) and put the girls in. The tom was moved to another coop while cleaning. Imagine his surprise when he went 'home' to 3 new girlfriends! I know, I should have quarantined... I opted not to.

Our day wasn't done there. No kids this weekend, so we had to go do chores, run back to TSC for feed, waters, feeders (thank you so much for the mineral block holder idea... Whoever it was)! Supper, clean the wood stove, laundry, dishes...

It was a looooong but great day!

Here's the quad!
One girl came named - Snowflake. She has a white feather
on her head that looks like a snowflake fell on her head and stayed.


This one kept upsetting the tom by wanting my attention and not his.


He just kept trying harder....




He's so much darker than them....


The next 2 pics I just got done mauling the tom and loving him up.
He did not appreciate it at all.
When I went to get him, he calmed down some when I pet his
chest. He still isn't a people oriented bird, but he still has done
nothing to make me thing he'll be mean either.




This is the only head pic of the 10 I took that came out!

I like those colors!!! Very pretty; I like the contrast of the deep brown against the brilliant white! =)
I KWYM; it's nearly impossible to get a head shot of a bird!!! lol

 

[BullChick]

That may have been me. I posted a simple apple brine. But I also remember someone posted after me a different brine with more ingredients.


Edited to add the recipes I found on the turkeys for 2013 thread

this was my very basic recipe -
I don't remember the exact amounts. I want to say in a huge pan filled it 2/3 water 1/3 juice roughly 1cup of salt leaving enough room to submerge the turkey of course. Then before cooking I quartered up 5 apples and tossed them with a few hunks of butter and sprinkled with spices, I don't remember what I used most likely it was Rosemary its my fav spice. The apple mixture was then stuffed in the turkey.


This was TexasLisa's recipe-
How can I say no to the avatar that makes me laugh every time I see it!!! APPLE BRINE 2 qts. water 2 qts CHEAP apple juice 1 c table salt OR 1 1/2 c kosher salt 1/2 c brown sugar 10 whole cloves 1 T black peppercorns zest of orange In large pot combine salt, sugar, and 1 qt. water. Bring to light boil, stirring until salt and sugar are dissolved. Remove from heat, add cloves, peppercorn and zest. Allow to cool. Add remaining water and apple juice. Refrigerate until completely chilled. Place poultry in container. Pour brine inside cavity first then on top. Cover completely. (If there isn't enough brine, add more apple juice) Brine 1 hour per pound in refrigerator. (This last time I doubled the recipe because of the size of the bird). While brining, swish the bird around in the brine. Thoroughly rinse all brine off before cooking or it will be salty. When baking, I add onion, apple, and garlic to the cavity.


This was Celie's recipe-
Being from the South, I brine with 1 can cheap frozen apple juice, thawed, 1quart water, with 1/2 cup dark brown sugar and 1 cup kosher salt, dissolved and cooled, 1/2 T red pepper or cayenne, 1 T savory, 1T rubbed sage, 1t marjoram, 1t rosemary, 2 large onions pealed and quartered, a whole head of garlic cut in half through the center, to expose the insides, and after putting in your turkey, cover with water just over the top of turkey, put a lid on and refrigerate for 1 day, I usually use a chest filled with ice, because the brining bucket is too big for the frig. Open the bucket every few hours and swish the turkey up and down, to make sure the seasoning stays mixed up. Be sure after all brining, to rinse thoroughly, or your turkey will be too salty! Sometimes without brining, I just stuff the bird with a large onion or 2 quartered, a few carrots and a head of pealed garlic cloves, but I am from the South, where we usually use a lot of onion and garlic!

Thank you.

 

[DraigAthar]

Does anyone know if a domestic-wild turkey cross is fertile? They are different species, so theoretically the crosses shouldn't be fertile (such as turkey-chicken crosses, donkey-horse crosses, tiger-lion crosses, all produce sterile offspring). But sometimes the crosses of very closely related species are an exception to that rule. That could effect the salability of any crosses that were created, since they could only be sold for meat or pets, but could not be used as part of a breeding flock if they were sterile.

They are not technically different species ... all of our domestic turkeys have been developed from wild turkeys. They cross readily and offspring are fertile. I know in CA (where my hubby is originally from) in many residential areas, they have problems with wild-domestic turkey cross populations becoming invasive. The housing association where he used to live brought in a fish & game representative (to assess the 'problem'), and the guy told them to do whatever they wanted with their domestic turkeys, the state didn't care. As far as they were concerned, they were livestock.

 

[chickadoodles]

They are not technically different species ... all of our domestic turkeys have been developed from wild turkeys. They cross readily and offspring are fertile. I know in CA (where my hubby is originally from) in many residential areas, they have problems with wild-domestic turkey cross populations becoming invasive. The housing association where he used to live brought in a fish & game representative (to assess the 'problem'), and the guy told them to do whatever they wanted with their domestic turkeys, the state didn't care. As far as they were concerned, they were livestock.

The history of the Bourbon said they crossed with wild turkey to get the bourbon color.

 

[Sydney Acres]

Quote:
You're absolute right, my mistake. I quickly glanced at the scientific names of the different wild breeds when I was looking up the Gould's turkey, and misread the information. Each different wild turkey is a different subspecies, not a different species, from the domestic, so the offspring of crosses should be fertile. That makes a lot more sense. Sometimes when something doesn't make sense I need to just slow down and re-read the information.